A message to faithless, stubborn Israel
48
📚“Hear this, O house of Jacob,
you who are called
by the name of Israel,
who have come from the waters
of Judah,
who swear by the name
of the LORD,
and invoke the God of Israel,
but not in truth 📖
or in righteousness.
48:1 Even when they ran after idols (v 5), even when their spiritual condition was as described in Isa 1:2-17, they liked to continue with the forms of their religion.⚜
2 📚For they call themselves
after the holy city 📖,
and lean on the God of Israel;
the LORD of hosts is
his name.
3 📚I have declared the former
things long ago;
and they went out
of my mouth,
and I declared them.
Suddenly I acted,
and they took place.
4 📚Because I knew
that you are obstinate,
and your neck is
an iron sinew,
and your brow bronze,
5 📚I declared it
to you long ago.
Before it happened I declared it
to you,
so that you could not say,
‘My idol has done them,
and my carved image and my cast
metal image has commanded
them.’
6 📚You have heard;
look at all this.
And will you not declare it?
From this time I tell you new things,
hidden things that
you have not known.
7 They are created now,
and not long ago;
and before this day
you have not heard them,
so that you cannot say,
‘See, I knew them.’
8 📚You certainly did not hear;
you certainly did not know 📖;
from that time your ear
certainly was not opened;
for I knew that you would deal
very treacherously,
and that you were called
a transgressor from the womb.
9 📚“For my name’s sake
I will delay my anger,
and for my praise I will
restrain it from you,
so that I do not cut you off.
48:9 See 1 Sam 12:22; Ps 78:38; Isa 37:35. If God did not restrain His anger who would not be cut off? Notes on God’s anger at Num 25:3; Ps 90:7-11; John 3:36; Rom 1:18.⚜
10 📚See,
I have refined you,
but not as silver;
I have chosen you
in the furnace of affliction.
48:10 Jer 9:7; Ezek 22:17-22; Ps 66:10-12. Many of God’s people through the centuries have been tested in this furnace (1 Pet 1:6-7; 4:1, 12).⚜
11 📚For my own sake,
yes,
for my own sake,
I will do it;
for why should my name
be profaned?
And I will not give my glory
to another.
48:11 Verse 9. If God completely destroyed the nation Israel, if He did not continue to work in them to bring them back to Himself and make them what they ought to be, if He did not keep His promises toward them, His name would be dishonored. Compare Ex 32:9-14.⚜
12 📚Listen to me,
O Jacob and Israel,
my called people;
I am he;
I am the first,
I am also the last 📖.
13 📚And my hand has laid
the foundation of the earth,
and my right hand has spanned
the heavens 📖.
When I call to them,
they stand up together 📖.
14 📚All of you,
assemble yourselves and listen.
Who among them has declared 📖
these things 📖?
The LORD loves him;
he will carry out his pleasure on Babylon,
and his arm will be against
the Chaldeans 📖.
15 📚I, I myself,
have spoken;
yes, I have called him.
I have brought him,
and he will make his way successful.
16 📚Come near to me;
listen to this.
From the first I have not spoken
in secret.
From the time that it happened,
I am there.
And now the Lord God,
with his spirit,
has sent me.
48:16 See Isa 45:19. In the last words of the verse the speaker is probably Isaiah. He refers to his appointment and empowering as a prophet (Isa 6:9; 2 Pet 1:21).⚜
17 📚Thus says the LORD,
your Redeemer 📖,
the Holy One 📖 of Israel:
“I am the LORD your God
who teaches 📖 you to your
benefit,
who leads you in the way
that you should go.
18 📚“O that you had listened
to my commandments!
Then your peace would
have been like a river,
and your righteousness 📖 like
the waves 📖 of the sea,
19 📚And your descendants
would have been like the sand 📖,
and the offspring of your body
like its grains;
his name would not have been
cut off or destroyed from
my presence”.
20 📚Go out of Babylon!
Flee from the Chaldeans.
With a voice of singing declare,
tell this, send it out
to the ends of the earth,
saying, “The LORD has redeemed
his servant Jacob”.
48:20 God speaks to the remnant as though they were already in Babylon and as if Babylon were destroyed. He Who knows the end from the beginning may (and does) speak so (Isa 46:10). This foretells Israel’s release from captivity and the joy they would experience because of it.⚜
21 📚And they did not thirst
when he led them
through the deserts.
He caused water to flow out
of the rock for them.
He also split the rock,
and water gushed out.
48:21 A reminder of what God did once before in desert regions (Ex 17:6; Num 20:11; Deut 8:15; Ps 78:15-16). The reminder was to assure Israel of God’s care and provision for them during the return from Babylon. See also Isa 32:2; 35:6; 43:19; 49:10. Of course, there is spiritual truth here for believers now too as they journey through the desert of this world to the heavenly Mount Zion.⚜
22 📚“There is no peace”,
says the LORD,
“for the wicked”.
48:22 See Isa 3:11; 57:20-21. The wicked in Israel would not share in the redemption and joy of v 20. How can there be peace for the wicked when God has set His face against all wickedness and will take vengeance on it? But even the wicked may have what seems to be peace – temporarily (Ps 73:3-12, 16-20; Rom 2:4-6).⚜